20 ways you can afford a new bike

Here are twenty things you can try to help you fund your new bike fund just that little bit quicker.

Decent mountain bikes aren’t cheap. It can be off-putting to browse the price tags. Regardless of your budget you should buy the best bike that you can afford and that usually means a more expensive bike.

By our rough guestimations, if someone was to adhere to all twenty of these suggestions they’d easily have an extra £1000 or more in their accounts by the end of the year.

1. Credit card balance transfer

Stop paying all that huge interest on your CC debt for 18 months or so by transferring it to a new card provider.

2. Switch your utility provider

Change who you get your electric and gas from. Ditto broadband/TV.

3. Stop collecting stuff

And start selling stuff. eBay is there for you.

4. Shop from a list

Write a list before you go supermarket shopping. Don’t buy anything that isn’t on the list no matter how much of a ‘great deal’ it is. You don’t need it.

5. Try own brand alternatives

If you don’t fancy doing it with foodstuffs (yet), try things like own-brand cleaning products and toiletries.

6. Stop spending money on your kids

Spend time with them instead.

7. Turn off the lights

Your Dad was right. Whilst you’re there, hunt down and eliminate any drafty windows and doors that are causing you to run the heating more than you should be doing.

8. Cancel unused memberships

Go through your bank statement (and your Paypal statement) and have a look at all those little subs that you keep paying for things you hardly ever or never use.

9. Learn to fix things yourself

YouTube is the 21st century Skills University. You can learn how to repair anything on YouTube. Bike stuff, Carstuff. House stuff. Get on it. Satisfaction and saving money. Win win.

10. Inflate your car tyres

11. Eat less meat

Decent meat costs a lot of money. Hop aboard the veggie/vegan bandwagon for a couple of days a week and watch the pennies rack up. Your body will thank you for it too.

12. Collect coins smaller than 50p

A lot of people collect coppers (1p and 2p coins). But even after a year of doing so the reward hardly feels worth it. Up the ante to include everything up to and including 20p pieces. You’ll be a millionaire in a couple of months. Maybe.

13. Shop at discount supermarkets

By all means still pop into Waitrose/Booths (delete as your postcode dictates) for your must-have treats but start doing the bulk of your weekly shop in the Euro zones like Aldi and Lidl. You can pretty much halve your shopping bill.

14. Go to an actual market

When was the last time you went to a street market? If you think Aldi and Lidl are cheap, you should see how cheap proper market grocers are. And their stuff tastes and lasts better.

15. Have a dry January

You booze, you lose… money. Not only is alcohol inordinately expensive but often it’s the attendant extra spending that you do whilst/after drinking that is easy to dismiss. Taxi fares, kebabs, regrettable eBay purchases, damaged clothing, morning-after coffees etc etc.

16. Don’t buy bottled water

Instead buy a snazzy water bottle and fill it with tap water.

17. Stop going to Starbucks (as much)

Or Costa. Or Cafe Nero. You could buy yourself a new bike tyre for the same amount of money you give to your coffee dealer in a week.

18. Take a packed lunch to work

You know this already but do you do it? Do you heck. Between this and not going to Starbucks you’ll instantly notice how much money you have in your wallet/purse/account. Some city workers could save a three figure sum in a week (especially if they’re doing Dry January and not partaking in liquid lunches).

19. Ride to work

20. Buy last year’s model

Has much changed in mountain biking for 2017? Yes and no. There’s no new wheel sizes. Boost axles are a bit more widespread than in 2016. And there’s more metric/trunnion rear shocks. But that’s about it.

Find yourself a 2016 model in the end-of-year sales and you could save yourself a grand or more.